The scans of some old "advertisements" that Thomas Payerle developed (with my help) for Random Howe's Book-of-the-Month Club might be of interest even though they do not quite fit this catagory. One has titles such as The Search for Terrestrial Intelligence and Do-It-Yourself Cerebral Repair (with brief descriptions); the other includes titles such as Flying Saucer Cover-up? and The Human Brain: a User's Guide.

(If you enjoy such odd humor, you might also enjoy the other scans [of advertisements for Big Sam's Anatomical Warehouse]. Sadly, some of the other bulletin board flyers we developed while at Washington University have not survived: Nunzio's Mortuary and Pizzeria [with free pick-up and delivery], a notice for a buyer of teeth named T. Faerie, and a notice of a lost Protoceratops [from an institute of temporal studies] are the ones I remember and there were some other [now lost] Big Sam's ads. The artistic quality was not great, but they did provide a few smiles.)

The title I remember, from 1981, was "Nailing Jelly To A Tree" by Jerry Willis.

Considering the success of the "Dummies" books, and the copycat "idiots guide", I suspect "Directional Derivatives For Brain-dead [censored]" would be insulting enough to get massive sales.

Seriously however: a series of books for "advanced dummies" or even "moderately ignorant" would be interesting. Instead of assuming no prior knowledge, they'd start with some basic skills assumed [and a reference if the book proves too hard].